Why WordPress?Why should you use WordPress? Because

it’s awesome. There are a ton of reasonswhy WordPress is a quality platform for

building websites.

We've detailed several of the reasons you should use WordPress in this ebook:

1. Easy to Use2. Did Somebody Say Free?3. Ownership4. Powerful5. Flexible with Themes & Plugins6. Easy to Install7. Features8. Trust9. Do It Yourself10. Love Your Website

While we think this is a pretty compelling list of reasons, the best reason is tosee for yourself.

Download WordPress and find out why it's so awesome.

Why WordPress?Why should you use WordPress? Because it’s awesome. There area ton of reasons why WordPress is a quality platform for buildingwebsites.

First and foremost, WordPress is easy.

Your mom could do it. It’s a straightforward platform for your website thatmakes everything simple.

You don’t need to know code.You don’t need to learn a complicated program.You don’t need to call in an expert. If you can use basic computer softwarelike Microsoft Word or you can handle email, then you can use WordPress.

It’s easy to post new content.

WordPress makes it easy to add new content. You can easily create new postsor create new pages for your website. You're in control.

It’s easy to edit old content.

The WordPress Dashboard makes it easy to manage content. Quickly andeasily made edits and update content from posts or pages.

It’s easy to add or change navigation menu items.

Create your own navigation menus with WordPress' custom menu options.

It’s easy to change your site’s look and layout.

The possibilities are endless. Choose from thousands of WordPress themesthat create the look and feel of your site. Premium WordPress themes likeiThemes Builder operate more like web design software to let you build yourown page layouts.

1. Easy to Use

It’s easy to add new functionality.

WordPress plugins create all sorts of possibilities to extend the functionality ofyour WordPress site. Like WordPress themes, there are thousands of pluginchoices out there and premium WordPress plugins provide added assuranceof quality and support.

That’s the way it should be. Easy.

WordPress means the days of hiring a techie to make basic changes to yoursite are gone. You can update your site all by yourself. You can make changesright now. No more waiting.

When you choose to use WordPress you only pay for what you need. Thesoftware itself is free. All you’re getting is the backend software to build andrun your site. It doesn’t come with any guarantees or customer support.You’re on your own. If you don’t want to pay a dime, it’s pretty basic.

If you want to host your own site on your own domain, then you need to payfor hosting. (WordPress.com offers free hosted WordPress sites;WordPress.org allows you to download the software and install it on your ownhost.)

If you want a specific look, you might need to pay for a premium theme orhire a designer to create what you want. (There are plenty of free themes, butthese may not offer everything you need.)

If you want help, you might need to pay for customer service or a consultantto help you out.

If you want increased functionality, you might need to pay for a premiumplugin or hire a developer to create what you want. (Again, there are plenty offree plugins, but they may not accomplish everything you want.)

That’s the nice thing about WordPress—you only pay for what you need.If you don’t need much, you don’t have to pay anything. But if you need more,you can get it for the right price. There are plenty of consultants who can offerthat customer support, there are premium themes and plugins and all kindsof help if you need it. But only if you need it. You’re not paying for somethingyou don’t need.

2. Did Somebody Say Free?Yes, WordPress is free. It doesn’t cost you anything to get started.Now we know what you’re thinking—is there a catch?

Free Is More Than PriceWordPress itself is free. But free is about more than price.

WordPress is an open source product, which means anyone can contributeand make it better. Nobody owns it. It’s owned by the community of users. Sonobody is getting rich off of WordPress itself. Nobody can exploit thesoftware, raise the price, force you to upgrade or break it.

It’s a community creation that benefits the community. By using WordPressyou’re tapping into this community and getting the benefits of being part of anopen source world.

So the overall cost of WordPress is certainly low—in some cases free. Youmight need to pay for some things—maybe hosting or a premium theme. Butonly what you need. When we say WordPress is free, what we really meanis liberated. You’re not shackled to some costly, archaic, closed-door system.You’re part of a community that shares.

You should use WordPress because it offers freedom. It can set you free fromhigh costs, long-term commitments and unreasonable limitations.

You can set up a presence on Twitter or build a Facebook page and have greatinteractions with your audience. But you don’t own those platforms.Facebook can change the rules on you at any time (and they have). Andsuddenly that interaction with your audience is gone, or severelycompromised.

Even other platforms like Twitter, Tumblr, Blogger, Posterous and others havethe same hidden downside. Tumblr may seem like a simple and easy place toset up shop. But you don’t own the shop. Tumblr does. That means you’re attheir mercy. That’s not a good place for your primary online presence to be.It’s fine to use any of these other services as outposts online, but you need toown your base of operations.

That’s what WordPress makes possible. You download the software and installit on your own host. You own the space, you own the url, you own thesoftware. Nobody can pull it out from under you or change the rules. Youdon’t have to worry about some new timeline being rolled out or a newprivacy issue. Nobody can change the design but you.

The web may seem like a fast moving world where nobody thinks long term,but the web already has a lengthy history. And if you’re going to be online, youneed to be thinking longterm. Will Facebook be around in five years?Probably, but will it still be at the height of popularity and the best place to befor your brand? Who knows. But five years ago MySpace seemed like a greatidea.

3. OwnershipThere are a lot of free website platforms out there. If you’rebuilding a blog or even a basic website you have plenty of choices.But one big advantage that WordPress offers is ownership.

Letting someone else own your site isn’t a risk you should take. You need toown your base of operations online. Have all the outposts you want onother people’s sites, but you need a home base and you need to own it.WordPress makes that possible.

(Note: WordPress.com offers free hosted sites that you don't own.To take advantage of full ownership, you need to useWordPress.org and buy your own hosting.)

Even though you’re using a simple, free program, WordPress is lightweight. Itcan handle all kinds of powerful stuff, well beyond what a beginner canhandle.

That might sound overwhelming for the newbie, but never fear. WordPressallows you to turn things off, hide them or ignore them completely. If youdon’t need the powerful features, you don’t have to be intimidated by them.But it’s good to know they’re there.

You don’t want to start out with a basic site only to discover it can’t doanything more than basic when you’re ready for the next step. That meansyou have to start over at every next step. Taking each step is hard enoughwithout having to start over with a whole new platform.

But WordPress can grow with you. It can take the next step. It can take a lotof steps. It can handle simple, basic sites and it can also handle complex sitesthat require a lot of muscle. E-commerce, social networking, forums, multiplesites, multiple blogs, galleries, videos, maps, mobile? Bring it on. WordPresshas the chops to do it all.

That’s why major organizations have turned to WordPress: CNN, Pepsi, Ford,American Red Cross, New York Times and more.

Whether you need a little or a lot, WordPress has the muscle. And withWordPress plugins and themes, you can add all kinds of extra functionalitythat will make WordPress do even more.

4. PowerfulWordPress may be easy to use, but it’s also powerful. You can do alot with WordPress and it gives you all kinds of control to changeall kinds of things.

WordPress started out as a blogging platform. But today it’s so much morethan that. It can run a standard website, whether it’s simple or complex. It canhandle e-commerce and social networking. You can use it to share photos orvideos. You can even create location-based sites using maps. The only limit isyour imagination.

Out of the box, WordPress if a fairly straight-forward blogging and contentmanagement system (CMS). But with plugins and themes you can add allkinds of extra features and make WordPress do so much more. It’s flexible.

That means your site can grow as you grow. You may not think you’ll everneed an e-commerce solution, but a few years down the road who knowswhat you’ll need. With WordPress, you can just add a plugin and you'll havethe functionality you need. With other solutions, you might have to start allover and rebuild your site just to add the functionality you need.

WordPress Themes

One of the most flexible features of WordPress are themes. What is aWordPress theme? Themes control the look and feel of the site—and the bestpart? You can swap them out with the click of a button. You can change theentire look of your site in a moment. You don’t have to rebuild or recode yoursite.

5. Flexible with Themes &PluginsOut of the box, WordPress if a fairly straight-forward blogging andcontent management system (CMS). But with plugins and themesyou can add all kinds of extra features and make WordPress do somuch more. It’s flexible.

And we’re not just talking colors. Themes can radically change the entire layoutof a site. It’s like changing clothes, only better. Right sidebar or left sidebar?One, two or three column layout? A big graphic header or a slim text headerthat gets straight to the content? A lengthy footer with helpful links and tips orjust a simple copyright line? A standard reverse-chronological blog homepageor a big feature graphic with minimal text on the homepage? You can do it allwith themes.

This means when it comes time to redesign your site, you don’t have to startfrom scratch. The backend system can stay the same. You can just update thetheme and give your site a new look and feel in a fraction of the time anda fraction of the cost.

There’s also a virtually unlimited supply of themes. There are thousands offree themes out there as well as loads of premium themes. You can alsotweak an existing theme or create your own (or hire someone else to createone for you).

Plugins

What are WordPress plugins? While themes allow you to do just aboutanything with the look and feel of the site, plugins allow you to extend thefunctionality of WordPress.

If WordPress doesn’t do what you want it to do, there’s likely a pluginthat will let you do it. Plugins are bits of code that enable WordPress to domore. There are simple plugins that will show quotes in your sidebar or showa list of your most popular posts, and crazy complicated plugins that will turnyour site into an e-commerce shop or your own private social network.

This is the flexibility that makes WordPress so great. If it doesn’t do what youwant, you don’t have to start over with a whole new system. You can find (orcreate) a plugin that will do what you want, allowing your site to grow withyou. Don’t scrap what you have just because some tiny feature isn’t there. Youcan find it with plugins.

And just like with themes, there are thousands of plugins out there. There arefree plugins and premium plugins. You can easily hire a coder to build theexact plugin you’re looking for.

This ability to add on to your software is at the core of WordPress. It’sdesigned that way. Try doing that with Microsoft Word.

WordPress has the flexibility you need. And that’s pretty awesome.

The Famous Five-Minute Install

WordPress is famous for its five-minute installation process. That’s right—upand running in less than five minutes. It’s that quick and easy to get thingsstarted.

This basic installation process is quick and easy, but there are a few thingsthat may be intimidating for the novice user. If that’s you, WordPress offers allkinds of installation help. There’s plenty of WordPress documentation walkingyou through the process and pointing out potential hiccups.

How to Install WordPress Manually

We recently put together an ebook: How to Install WordPress Manually. Thisguide walks step-by-step through the manual install process with helpfulscreenshots and tips.

Note: While a manual install may take a bit longer, it does helps tocorrect the security and “bloat” issues associated with using quick-install applications provided by most hosting providers.

6. Easy to InstallWordPress is quick and easy to install. That’s big because youshould be focusing on your content, not wresting with software.With WordPress, that installation wrestling match is as short aspossible so you can get to back to the work you know best—yourown content.

One-Click Installs

If you’re really not sure what you’re doing, many hosting services offer one-click WordPress installation. They’ll do all the dirty work (if five minutes ofwork can be considered “dirty”) and install it for you.

Next Steps

WordPress' super speedy install gets you the basic theme and no content.You’ll still need to install the theme you want, customize your settings, tweakany graphics and start adding content, so check out these WordPress tutorialsfor moving beyond the installation process.

Standards compliant

This might be a head scratcher for many folks, but it’s important: WordPress isfully compliant with WC3, The World Wide Web Consortium. Basically, thismeans that WordPress follows the basic standards for code so it’s going towork across most browsers, both today and into the future.

No rebuilding

When you make changes to your site, they appear as soon as you hit save.Some content management systems require rebuilding your site after anychange, which makes the whole process of updating your site slow to a crawl.WordPress lets you make the changes and move on.

User registration

WordPress offers a full-blown (but optional) user registration system, whichallows people to register to join your site. You can offer all kinds of extras toregistered users, including commenting for registered users only or postsvisible only to registered users

Contributors

You can have multiple levels of access for contributors, ensuring that some ofyour coworkers can’t post content live without someone else approving it. It’sa good way to install some checks and balances, especially if you have a teamof people posting content.

7. FeaturesWordPress has the features you need for your site. Let’s take aquick look at a few worth having.

Spam protection

WordPress comes with powerful spam filters out of the box to keep your sitefree of junk.

Search engine friendly

Out of the box WordPress plays nice with search engines and will help getyour content ranked as high as possible in search engine results. Searchengine optimization (SEO) is a big business, but you have a huge leg up on thecompetition simply by using WordPress.

And that's just a taste of the features WordPress has to offer. Check out theWordPress features page for a complete list.

Fully Customizable

WordPress offers a ton of built-in customization options. With a qualityWordPress theme, just about any design is possible.

Popular

Nearly 17% of the Internet is powered by WordPress. For every 100 newdomains in the U.S., 22 are running WordPress.

Fortune 500

It’s good enough for Fortune 500 companies. WordPress showcases howFortune 500 companies are using the platform for various sites and blogs. Infact, check out the WordPress Showcase for even more examples of who’susing WordPress. You’ll find big name celebrities, major organizations andhighly successful companies.

Backing

WordPress has the support of several organizations, including the WordPressFoundation and Automattic. The WordPress Foundation is a nonprofitdedicated to protecting WordPress and other open source projects.Automattic is a for-profit company founded by the same guy who startedWordPress. They continue to create open source projects and contribute toWordPress. So there are some well-funded groups that are watchingWordPress's back.

History

First started in 2003, WordPress is a platform with a long history. It’s not someflash-in-the-pan tech startup that won’t be here next year. It’s got stayingpower.

8. TrustWordPress sounds all well and good. But maybe you’re still notsure. How do you know you can trust this free, open sourceplatform?

Open source

Being open source has allowed WordPress to explode. They’ve got moretechies working on WordPress than most major software releases have. You’renot at the mercy of some major corporation, and that’s freed WordPress togrow and evolve as the community sees fit. The result? Much of thecompetition has faded away, while WordPress has grown exponentially.

No legalese

When you download WordPress there’s no legalese or terms of use. There’s abasic license agreement, but rather than being restrictive, it’s liberating. It’sthere to ensure WordPress remains free, not to hinder your use. That’s kind ofa change of pace from most software legalese.

Community

WordPress is its own economy. There are literally thousands of people whomake money from WordPress. These are developers and small businesses,freelancers and designers, writers and business people who are helpingothers use WordPress. It’s its own WordPress ecosystem. It’s not just onecompany getting rich and benefiting, it’s this entire system. That’s a good thing—it’s healthy, sustainable, diverse and powered by the people.

If you want to get more involved in the WordPress community, join a localWordPress meetup or attend a WordCamp. Chances are, there's a WordPressevent near where you live.

Philosophy

WordPress has a philosophy about how they approach software, and it’s notabout appeasing the techno geeks who want more and more inane features.WordPress works hard to be easy to use, designed for the majority andconstantly improving.

When you do it yourself you’re not held hostage by anyone. You canunleash your own creative spirit and make things happen when you want. Nomore waiting. No more paying. No more explaining. Just do it the way youwant, simple and easy.

The DIY spirit is ideal for a number of reasons:

Save cash: If you’re trying to cut costs or you simply can’t afford top dollarprofessionals, doing it yourself is a great way to save money.Do it now: When you bring in other people you’re now working on theirtimeline. That’s not always as fast as you want. Sometimes it’s horriblyslow. If you do it yourself you can do it on your timeline.Better: When you do it yourself you can often create something better. Itmight not be as refined as a professional’s work, but you can speak aboutyour own business with a passion a hired gun can never match.</li>

That do it yourself spirit is powerful. It’s what builds businesses. It’s whatdrives creative people. It’s what opens the door to new things. And it’sinherent in WordPress. You always have the option of getting help, butyou can also do it yourself. And that can be cheaper, faster and better.That’s why you should use WordPress.

9. Do It YourselfWordPress has a major do it yourself vibe. Not that you can’t gethelp, but it’s designed and set up so you can run your site all byyourself. That’s powerful.

Fall in love with a website? What?

This may sound crazy, but hear us out. WordPress makes your website easy.It’s simple to figure out, it’s easy to update—no more headaches. That meansyou can get back to what matters to you. Instead of fighting your site, youcan do what you do. Create your content, talk about your business, do whatyou love.

With WordPress the techie aspects of your site get out of the way. You don’thave to wrestle with code. You’re not shaking your head in frustration. You’renot lost in weird menus or wondering how something works. You don’t haveto hate your website. Working on it doesn’t have to be a chore.

Working on your website can actually be—dare I say it—fun.

That’s how it should be. Having a website shouldn’t be a dull chore, anothertask to check off your list. It should be something you love. After all, if you lovecreating your site, people will love visiting it. That kind of care and investmentshows and people will talk about what you’re doing.

WordPress makes it easy to fall in love with your website.

10. Love Your WebsitePerhaps the best reason to use WordPress is because you can fallin love with your website.

WordPress.com vs WordPress.orgYour WordPress LoginExploring the WordPress DashboardUsing the WordPress Admin BarExploring WordPress SettingsWordPress Posts vs PagesCreating a WordPress PostAdding Links in WordPressAdding Images in WordPressUsing the WordPress Media LibraryFormatting WordPress PostsScheduling WordPress PostsWordPress Categories & TagsCreating a WordPress PageApplying a WordPress Page TemplateWhat are WordPress Plugins?Installing WordPress PluginsWhat is a WordPress Theme?Using WordPress WidgetsHow to Install a WordPress ThemeCreating a Custom Menu in WordPressManaging Comments in WordPressCreating Users in WordPress

WordPress TutorialsNew to WordPress? Check out our entire library of WordPresstutorial videos.

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